Jason said while during the 1995 Golden Globes, they were all at a Miramax party, and Harvey told him he had to leave, and when he went to exit the party, Harvey grabbed him by the arm and asked him what he was doing.

Representatives for Weinstein later hit back, insisting he had nothing to do with the casting of the movie, as by the time actors were hired, Miramax had lost the project to New Line.

Peter Jackson just came forward with this information to Stuff, now having deeper understanding of why he was told not to hire the pair of actresses.

In a statement on behalf of himself and producer Fran Walsh, he says that they both expressed enthusiasm for Judd and Sorvino. His explanation was that he did so under pressure from producer, Harvey Weinstein and it was only until many years later, he and his wife, Fran, realized that they may have played a part in keeping the women from getting cast. "This was probably in 1998", he told the site.

"In hindsight, I realise that this was very likely the Miramax smear campaign in full swing", Jackson said.

There was no indication that Mira Sorvino had any issues until Mr. Weinstein read about the complaints in the news.

The Kiwi filmmaker has labelled the disgraced Hollywood mogul's denial of Jackson's claim that that he urged him to steer clear of casting Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino for The Lord of the Rings trilogy as "insincere".

Weinstein denied blacklisting the actresses, and said he actually wanted Ashley Judd in "Good Will Hunting".

The Lord Of The Rings director revealed that Miramax advised him not to cast either because they were "nightmares" to work with.

"Although his name had to be on the Lord of the Rings credits for contractual reasons, he was not involved in the movies we ended up making", he added.

This is yet another disheartening example of the apparently toxic environment Weinstein created, nurtured, and thrived in for so long.

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